Accident in Private Car Park

[laalaa5433]

I have a temporary 2 week job with a small company. I parked in their jam packed private car park and very slowly accidently reversed into a lady's company car (for that company). I saw no damage and so went home. The next day it was mentioned and the lady showed me 2 tiny stratches near the back wheel and where part of the metal had been pushed in by literally a few millimetres. She took it to the garage that sorts out the company cars & they sent me an invoice for a ridiculous £340! The damage it not noticeable unless pointed out.

Do I legally have to pay this since it was a private car park and she was not parked in an allocated space even though there was a free one next to me all afternoon? I've spoken to the company and they've said there's not much they can do, accidents happen all the time in that car park and if they let me off for it then they'll have to let other people off when it happens again. I'm only 20, a university student just trying to get some money over the Summer! Can you help?

 

[NYClex]

It seems you are in Britain, so I have no idea about British law. But since American and British tort law have the same roots, I would assume that it does not matter at all where the "accident" happened, on public or on private ground. The idea is that he who is negligent and causes damage has to pay, no matter where he caused the damage.

The only difference it makes often is in penal law. Police will usually not cite you for a violation of traffic rules if it happened on private ground. But this does not affect a civil matter.